After having nearly lost Bam Bam and Zig Zag to Mr. Johnson and his crew, we were stunned to find that Johnson had the chutzpah to want us to deliver the toxic reagent to him again. We exchanged phone calls a few times. We pushed Johnson for more info on who he was working for but he kept quiet. He did reveal that he didn’t want us dead, but his superiors. I think our team wasn’t so hot on killing Johnson when this was revealed.

Johnson insisted that the attempt to kill us was “just business” and I decided we’d charge him 3,000 per runner for each time he said this. Sadly we couldn’t get him to agree to the extra 60,000 nuyen (5 × 12,000) for the delivery, but he did agree to 1,600 credit each (8,000 total) from the High Score equipment shop in the Crime mall in Seattle.

He tried to give us a location to meet at, but I obviously wasn’t going to play that game again. (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… )

We arranged for a dead drop in a dumpster of the mall. I planted the toxic reagent in a dumpster while obscured by a magical disguise (homeless ork, female). Flit, also in disguise, kept an eye on who went to pick it up. Turns out it was Mario, the proprietor of the High Score shop. Flit tried to get close to plant an RFID tag on Mario, but Mario was suspicious and held Flit at bay with a pistol, not letting Flit get close. Flit needs to learn some dumpster etiquette, perhaps.

Zig Zag and I rushed to High Score, but Mario was already there. ZZ spotted the bag with the reagent, and gave Mario something to look for in the back room. He then jumped the counter and went to place the tag. He almost got caught when Mario returned, but I hastily made ZZ invisible and Mario was none the wiser. RFID tag planted, we did some shopping at the store and then waited back at our homes for the reagent to get in motion.

Finally at around 8 pm it started moving. We scrambled to our vehicles and followed the tag from far away. It ultimately ended up near Boeing and disappeared. I know that Boeing is part of Ares, so I pressed my contacts on why Ares might want a toxic reagent. No one had a clue. Maybe it was a red herring, or maybe just too big of a secret for my friends to know about.

On the way back home we got funneled into a classic gang trap. Our cars were at a chokepoint and gangers closed in on all sides. Shots were traded, a toxic wave of mine exploded, and ZZ got us out of there with a sharp U turn. We killed a few of the gangers, but I caught a burst of automatic fire from behind. Luckily my armored vest absorbed most of the damage. Still left some ugly purple bruising, though. Sometimes this job sucks.

Downtime

A couple weeks passed. We all trained and collected gear. ZZ had some new cyberwear put in and got his sedan armored. Bam Bam headed off to do his/her own thing. Flit started swinging around a new toy, a monofilament whip. Davina disappeared to find Wall and never reappeared. She wouldn’t answer calls neither. I learned more about arcana and picked up a new Heal spell. I also got an expensive and useful set of Sleeping Tiger armor.

Catching Up With Bogart

Bogart wanted to meet up with us. He was very concerned that we hadn’t “cleaned” the VTOL craft before selling it. Rather than accept his part of the blame for this he threw us under the bus and talked about paying back 10% of our take.

We were hanging out at Thule’s old warehouse, when a strange young woman knocked on our door. Her name was Echo and she was a personable hacker who said she was sent by Bogart. Bogart wanted her with us so we wouldn’t make rookie mistakes again due to lack of matrix support. I have a good feeling for these things and could tell she was on the level. It was weird that she had no cyberdeck, though. She fell right in with the group and felt like a natural addition. Odd how she went from stranger to friend in just a few hours. That’s Echo’s special brand of personal magic – trust building.

Flit, Zig Zag, Echo, and myself headed to our meet with Bogart. He didn’t answer his bell and when we went in to check the situation out we came across “The Terminator” and a bunch of his goons. Only Echo knew who this guy was, but she filled us in. He was bad news – a vory member with 2 cyber arms. (Vory are Russian mobsters who were former KGB.) After they left the area we met with Bogart, who Terminator had just visited.

Bogart, who sounded a lot like James Cagney, explained that we’d need to meet with Terminator. He, apparently, was the buyer of the VTOL and he wasn’t happy that it wasn’t cleaned before sales. (People are so immature. They always point their finger at someone else, never accepting responsibility for their own mistakes.)

Bogart told us we were to meet with the Terminator by midnight. I was in need of a commlink, and Bogart gave me an Erika Elite in exchange for a later favor.

The Terminator

This guy had his goons all around him and we had to give up our weapons before we even got in the same room as him. Null sweat. Risk comes with the job. Flit and Echo charmed him with sweet talk and he became willing to give us a chance to make up for our mistake. Turns out Terminator didn’t really want money from us, but work. He might even throw us a little cash. I tried to help negotiations, but was distracted. I tried looking at the scene from the astral. As soon as I went dual natured I was attacked astrally and slapped solidly. I closed my third eye rapidly before I got slapped even worse. (These people show no hospitality whatsoever.)

Terminator wanted us to check out an Evo research base. It’s a 7 story tall base, with 2 stories above water and 5 stories below water. It moves from up north in former Canada to the Seattle area and back again. It comes near Seattle every 20 days. Terminator wanted us to figure out what they were researching and get their data. We accepted the run (as if we had a choice) and started researching.

Echo soon proved her value by getting some floor plans of the 5 stories below water. There was a main area, and the bottom 2 levels had smaller pods branching off. There was a watery access point at the very bottom level.

We talked to our contacts and came up with these three side missions:

According to Battle Ax, my fixer, Evo is known for having reagents of interest. Battle Ax would like whatever reagents they are working on harvesting.

Flit had a lead on matrix-enabled animals that we might encounter.

Echo had a financial offer for liberating a Killer Whale they had captive. Echo wouldn’t reveal which group was offering the reward. Hope that doesn’t mean they’re terrorists.

ZZ and Flit learned to scuba dive. ZZ got a lead on renting some underwater gear. I summoned a water spirit who could control the weather. We talked about how to best enter the place and achieve our goals.

It’s now 2 days before the research base is expected in the area. I loaned Flit 4000 nuyen and Echo 2000 nuyen. No interest on this loan, but Flit did have to give me a kiss. (I have my needs like anyone else.)